When it comes to food,a size does matter – that is, the amount of
food you eat. Food that we require in our daily diet is broadly divided
into five groups – Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, Milk and final group
being meats and beans. Each group consists of certain foods. Each of
these foods in turn must be eaten in certain quantities everyday. The
caloric value of all the foods from all the five groups should not be
less than or more than amount of calories that you require which is
approximately 2,300 for a healthy male adult.

However, controlling how much we eat or what we eat is more difficult
than expected. We normally prepare food and lay it out on the dining
table. Each one picks up a plate and ladles food onto the plate – we
tend not to measure it out. Also, people tend to pick and choose what
they wish to eat. Most adults usually tend to ignore vegetables or eat
them in quantities that are far below the daily recommendation.
Similarly, we heap our plates with meats and other “goodies” because we
love them. So although the food spread might meet the daily requirements
in terms of quantity and nutrients, the quantities and food items we
actually eat might fail the test of good dietary requirement.

So what is Portion size?

To most individuals, portion size refers to the quantum of food you
heap on to your plate and plan on eating in one go. In reality, portion
size actually refers to the amount of food you are supposed to have in
terms of your age, gender and physical activity.

Here is what one 1 portion looks like for various food items that need to be a part of your daily diet:

Size of a baseball: Vegetables or fruit.

One handful: Cooked rice or pasta

Deck of cards: Meat, poultry or fish

Size of a golf ball: Dried fruit or nuts

Size of a tennis ball: Ice cream

Computer mouse: Baked potato

Size of a compact disc and just as thin: Pancake / waffle

Size of your thumb: Peanut butter

Six dice: Cheese

Check book: A fillet of fish

Honestly, we doubt even a nutritionist can dish out food in perfect portion sizes.

Is there a way to measure the portion size?

Fortunately yes! We don’t have to keep a baseball or deck of cards or
a CD handy on the dinner table. Modern ingenuity and need of the hour
has helped create and perfect the portion size control or portion
control plates and scoopers.

The manufacturers of portion control plates help you get it right and
in doing so, being in control of not only the quantum of food you
consume, but also what foods you consume. The portion control plate
takes out the “emotional” factor from the quantum of food by preventing
us from heaping more on to our plate just because we love a particular
food item.

To begin with, portion control plates are smaller than traditional
plates. This makes us feel the plate is loaded i.e. we see more food
than there actually is. Real portion control plates also have
demarcations for various food groups. This is of immense help as it
allows you to see at a glance just how much of each food should be on
the plate.